The Vexilar FL Digital Depth Indicator (Video)

A video presentation on the Vexilar FL Digital Depth Indicator. ...read more

Video Transcription

Here’s a great product from Vexilar and it’s called the DD-100. The DD-100 means Digital Depth. Yes now you have a digital depth display while you’re fishing with your Vexilar. The DD-100 adapts to any model Vexilar on the market today. No matter how old it is you can upgrade your Vexilar to have a digital depth display. Now how cool is that. And it fits on any Pro-Pack, Ultra-pack or Genz-Pack, the holes are already predesigned for it. The same holes that you would use to mount your D-130 battery status indicator are the same holes you would use for the DD-100. Even by pushing the task button here you actually get battery status as well, so you will always know the condition of your battery.

So the DD–100 is a great add-on accessory to any current Vexilar, and best yet all new models of Vexilar Pro-Packs and Ultra-Packs comes standard with the DD-100. read less

Ice Fishing Sonar: Vexilar How To Do The Split Shot Test (Video)

A video presentation on Vexilar, How to Do the Split Shot Test. ...read more

Video Transcript

Hi Tom Zenanko here for today’s tech tip on comparing different ice fishing sonar systems for target separation, target ID and overall power. You know I’ve been getting inundated with phone calls, lately everyone says how comes Vexilar has 400 W of power and Markham has 500 W, Hummingbird has 8000 W of power. With all this extra power than of Vexilar, how does this system work?

Here I have devised a simple test. Now granted I’m not a scientist, I’m just a fisherman like you guys out there conducting a test in the back of a little trainer here. But what I’ve done is I’ve drilled a hole and I’ve mounted all three transducers the same depth below me suspended. And I've taken a BB size split shot, now let me show you what I’ve done here. I’ve taken the split shots and I’ve taken a ruler and I have moved them exactly 2 1/2 inches apart. Let’s see if I can get 2 1/2 inches here. I want to be 2 1/2 inches apart because that is a point that a lot of people are totally unaware of. Okay 2 1/2 inches is right about their okay.

Now at 2 1/2 inches these two little split shots are going to be seen in 45 feet of water. Know what I’m going to do it is I’m going to drop these babies down. Now I have to put a disclaimer on this thing, these are units right out of the box. We didn’t modify them or change them in any way. We simply took the Markham LX5, the Hummingbird Ice55 and of course the Vexilar this is a 22 but I’ve done it with all of them so it really doesn’t make a difference which one we use. In this case I’ll turn on the Vexilar. Now the Vexilar at first glance is very easy to operate. You turn it to the 50 foot range because we are in 45 feet of water you turn to the 50 foot move closer in 45 feet of water. And if we want to go to the zoom range all we do is we hit AZ range and I’m set. I’m ready to start fishing and now I’m watching my jig go down on the side. Why don’t you come on in here and you can see what I’m talking about here.

Here is my little jig going down and I’ll see this is a class issue of what I’m talking about when we talk about the resolution. The entire 45 feet depth of the water column is compressed into the side of the display. And all you can see is the jig going down at least the two split shots going down. You have no idea that there are actually 2 split shots here. But once you get the split shots within a 6 foot range of the bottom. I’m going to stop it here, I want to suspended dead I don’t want to move it. If you jiggle it, it kinds of falsify the signal. But what to do is once you got down there all you have to do is then turn down the gain and you can clearly see that there are 2 individual split shots there and at 2 1/2 inches 2 individual split shots. You can easily see them 1 – 2. It’s amazing how the resolution is so sharp.

For all you tech heads out there who love to test things for yourself, I encourage you conduct your own split shot test to find out firsthand what other brands of sonar can tell you compared to a Vexilar. To do this split shot test accurately you need to be fair and uniform in how you conduct the test with any sonar. So I suggest you follow these directions as closely as possible.

First off you want to use units of equal age. The last thing you want to do is compare a 10-year-old system to one that just came from out of the box. And they don’t have to be new systems just keeping them the same approximate age is another way of keeping things fair. Now let’s get started. First thing you need to do is get in 45 feet of water or more. You want to suspend all transducers evenly just below the bottom of the ice. Then you want to use 2 split shot size sinkers. Now you want to have a ruler handy or some type of measuring device to make sure you get the split shots set correctly. And of course you want to use a light line, a 2 pound test line is recommended.

Do not move the split shots once they are down and stop them about 5 feet above the bottom. Be sure to use the zoom feature of any unit tested to maximize display resolution. Now adjust the gain and transducer cone angles to get you the best signal display. To document the differences between the units use a camera with a shutter speed set at 1/30 of a second. By following this checklist you’ll have a great time seeing the true differences between Vexilar and any other flasher sonar systems on the market today.

Now I’m going to do one more test to really blow you away and this involves taking the split shot test to the extreme. Now again you can conduct this test if you got some friends that have a Hummingbird or a Markham unit. You can do this test yourself. As you see this is on edited, this is as it happens, there is nothing magical about what I’ve done and I’ve done this test several times to outdoor writer groups and organizations all around the country. But I wanted to put it on tape so that everybody could see once and for all that power doesn’t mean superior sonar. Power just means a waste of energy so you don’t get as much battery use and you as an angular don’t get to take full advantage of what the three color sonar systems can do.

Now here we go. I’m going to 1 inch. Now I want to see in 40 feet of water if the Vexilar can show target separation ( I did it off my wrist watch here). Can show target separation of 1 inch and I don’t think I can because my watch just ate my line, oh here she goes. Let’s go back down. It’s totally fascinating to me when I do this test to people because they always hear these stories about how more power means better sonar and all this stuff and these guys actually try to defend this inferior technology compared to Vexilar.

Now the Vexilar is not one to play these types of games and I know we want to again put a disclaimer on this test to show that this test is as it happens. We didn’t doctor or modify this in any way, shape or form. But we wanted to show you this, to show to all of our Vexilar fans out there why we have millions of people who love the Vexilar sonar system. It’s because it does indeed supply you with more information, better information to make you a better angler. And that’s why millions of people would never go fishing without a Vexilar.

So let’s do the ultimate test. We’re down to 1 inch, let’s see if we can see target separation at 1 inch. Right now we have actually got an orange, 2 orange and 2 greens. And we back it down even more to see if I can get the greens to separate. Which is really challenging, how do you like that? I hope the camera can pick that up because it’s very obvious here that there are two very distinct lines at 1 inch for target separation. I’ll turn up the gain in the orange setting, I’ve got target separation here as well. Two different, never these are two split shots 1 inch apart in 40 feet of water.

I’m Tom Zenanko for Ice Fishing Today and be sure to check out all these facts and we have a lot more fun stuff that we’ve done to show how superior Vexilar sonar technology is on… read less